Verbs vs Nouns by Snapin
A while ago the System Center Virtual Machine Manager team showed me a chart of their cmdlets. It was an Excel spreadsheet which had the VERBs as rows and the NOUNs as columns. I thought that this was a wonderful way to look at the cmdlets. I woke up this morning and decided to write a script which would do something similar. I’ve attached that script which accomplishes that task. In the process, I decided that there is a good general purpose function here but I haven’t figured out what it’s name is so right now I’m just calling it ConvertTo-XXX (I’m open to suggestions). NOTE – the cmdlet requires the latest version of PowerShell (the stuff we released at the PDC) so if you don’t have those bits, you’ll have to wait a few more weeks until CTP3 is available to try it out. Also note that this is using yesterday’s build which may have more cmdlets than the PRE-Beta we release.
I’m experimenting with a few coding practices so some of these may stay and some may go. I’d love any feedback you have on that topic.
PS> .\ConvertTo-XXX -Test
Microsoft.PowerShell.Diagnostics
Name Counter WinEvent
—- ——- ——–
Export Export-Counter *
Get Get-Counter Get-WinEvent
Import Import-Counter *
Microsoft.WSMan.Management
Name WSMan WSManAction WSManCredSSP WSManInstance WSManQuickConfig WSManSessionOption
—- —– ———– ———— ————- —————- ——————
Connect Connect-WSMan * * * * *
Disable * * Disable-WSManCredSSP * * *
Disconnect Disconnect-WSMan * * * * *
Enable * * Enable-WSManCredSSP * * *
Get * * Get-WSManCredSSP Get-WSManInstance * *
Invoke * Invoke-WSManAction * * * *
New * * * New-WSManInstance * New-WSManSessionOption
Remove * * * Remove-WSManInstance * *
Set * * * Set-WSManInstance Set-WSManQuickConfig *
Test Test-WSMan * * * * *
Microsoft.PowerShell.Core
Name Command Console Help History Job Module ModuleManifest ModuleMember Object
—- ——- ——- —- ——- — —— ————– ———— ——
Add * * * Add-History * * * * *
Clear * * * Clear-History * * * * *
Disable * * * * * * * * *
Enable * * * * * * * * *
Enter * * * * * * * * *
Exit * * * * * * * * *
Export * Export-Console * * * * * Export-ModuleMember *
ForEach * * * * * * * * ForEach-Object
Get Get-Command * Get-Help Get-History Get-Job Get-Module * * *
Import * * * * * Import-Module * * *
Invoke Invoke-Command * * Invoke-History * * * * *
New * * * * * New-Module New-ModuleManifest * *
Receive * * * * Receive-Job * * * *
Register * * * * * * * * *
Remove * * * * Remove-Job Remove-Module * * *
Set * * * * * * * * *
Start * * * * Start-Job * * * *
Stop * * * * Stop-Job * * * *
Test * * * * * * Test-ModuleManifest * *
Unregister * * * * * * * * *
Wait * * * * Wait-Job * * * *
Where * * * * * * * * Where-Object
Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility
Name Alias Clixml Command Csv Culture Custom Date Debug Default
—- —– —— ——- — ——- —— —- —– ——-
Add * * * * * * * * *
Clear * * * * * * * * *
Compare * * * * * * * * *
ConvertFrom * * * ConvertFrom-Csv * * * * *
ConvertTo * * * ConvertTo-Csv * * * * *
Disable * * * * * * * * *
Enable * * * * * * * * *
Export Export-Alias Export-Clixml * Export-Csv * * * * *
Format * * * * * Format-Custom * * *
Get Get-Alias * * * Get-Culture * Get-Date * *
Group * * * * * * * * *
Import Import-Alias Import-Clixml * Import-Csv * * * * *
Invoke * * * * * * * * *
Measure * * Measure-Command * * * * * *
New New-Alias * * * * * * * *
Out * * * * * * * * Out-Default
Read * * * * * * * * *
Register * * * * * * * * *
Remove * * * * * * * * *
Select * * * * * * * * *
Send * * * * * * * * *
Set Set-Alias * * * * * Set-Date * *
Sort * * * * * * * * *
Start * * * * * * * * *
Tee * * * * * * * * *
Trace * * Trace-Command * * * * * *
Unregister * * * * * * * * *
Update * * * * * * * * *
Wait * * * * * * * * *
Write * * * * * * * Write-Debug *
Microsoft.PowerShell.Host
Name Transcript
—- ———-
Start Start-Transcript
Stop Stop-Transcript
Microsoft.PowerShell.Management
WARNING: column “EventLog” does not fit into the display and was removed.
Name ChildItem Computer ComputerMachinePassword ComputerRestore ComputerRestorePoint ComputerSecureChannel Connection Content
—- ——— ——– ———————– ————— ——————– ——————— ———- ——-
Add * Add-Computer * * * * * Add-…
Checkpoint * Checkpoint-Computer * * * * * *
Clear * * * * * * * Clea…
Complete * * * * * * * *
Convert * * * * * * * *
Copy * * * * * * * *
Debug * * * * * * * *
Disable * * * Disable-ComputerRestore * * * *
Enable * * * Enable-ComputerRestore * * * *
Get Get-ChildItem * * * Get-ComputerRestorePoint * * Get-…
Invoke * * * * * * * *
Join * * * * * * * *
Limit * * * * * * * *
Move * * * * * * * *
New * * * * * * * *
Pop * * * * * * * *
Push * * * * * * * *
Register * * * * * * * *
Remove * Remove-Computer * * * * * *
Rename * Rename-Computer * * * * * *
Reset * * Reset-ComputerMachinePassword * * * * *
Resolve * * * * * * * *
Restart * Restart-Computer * * * * * *
Restore * Restore-Computer * * * * * *
Resume * * * * * * * *
Set * * * * * * * Set-…
Show * * * * * * * *
Split * * * * * * * *
Start * * * * * * * *
Stop * Stop-Computer * * * * * *
Suspend * * * * * * * *
Test * * * * * Test-ComputerSecureChannel Test-Connection *
Undo * * * * * * * *
Use * * * * * * * *
Wait * * * * * * * *
Write * * * * * * * *
Microsoft.PowerShell.Security
Name Acl AuthenticodeSignature Credential ExecutionPolicy PfxCertificate SecureString
—- — ——————— ———- ————— ————– ————
ConvertFrom * * * * * ConvertFrom-SecureString
ConvertTo * * * * * ConvertTo-SecureString
Get Get-Acl Get-AuthenticodeSignature Get-Credential Get-ExecutionPolicy Get-PfxCertificate *
Set Set-Acl Set-AuthenticodeSignature * Set-ExecutionPolicy * *
Here is the code for CONVERTTO-XXX.PS1
#requires -version 2.0
param(
[Parameter(ParameterSetName=”xxx”, Mandatory=$true, Position=0)]
$InputObject,
[Parameter(ParameterSetName=”xxx”, Mandatory=$true)]
$yProperty,
[Parameter(ParameterSetName=”xxx”, Mandatory=$true)]
$xProperty,
[Parameter(ParameterSetName=”xxx”)]
[ScriptBlock]
$CellValue = {“TRUE”},
[Parameter(ParameterSetName=”xxx”)]
$NullValue = “-“,
[Parameter(ParameterSetName=”TEST”, Mandatory=$true)]
[Switch]
$Test
)
function Assert
{
param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true, Position=0)]
[ScriptBlock]$script,
[Parameter(Position=1)]
$Message=$null
)
if (!(&$script))
{
$ThrowAway,$stack = Get-PscallStack
$msg = @”
ASSERT( $script ) FAILED at
$($stack | out-string)
$Message
Continue script execution?
“@
if ( !($pscmdlet.ShouldContinue($msg, “ASSERT FAILED”)))
{
exit
}
}
}
function Add-Property
{
param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true, Position=0)]
[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
$obj,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true, Position=1)]
[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
[String]
$prop,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true, Position=2)]
$value)
Add-Member -InputObject $obj -MemberType NoteProperty -Name $prop -Value $value -Force
}
if ($PSCmdlet.ParameterSetName -eq “TEST”)
{
foreach ($snapin in Get-PSSnapin) {
Write-output $snapin.Name
$InputObject = get-command -PSSnapin $snapin -type Cmdlet |sort noun
&$MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path $InputObject -nullValue “*” -YProperty Verb -xProperty Noun -CellValue {$args[0].name}|ft -auto |out-string –stream
}
exit
}
foreach ($group in $InputObject | Group-Object -Property $yProperty |Sort Name)
{
$outObj = New-Object psobject
Add-Property $outObj Name $group.Name
foreach ($inObj in $InputObject)
{
$Xname = $inObj.$xProperty
Assert {$Xname } “Property [$XProperty] not found on input object”
Assert {$Xname -ne “NAME” } “Cannot have ‘Name’ as a property”
if ($InObj.$yProperty -eq $group.Name)
{
Add-Property $outObj $Xname (&$CellValue $inObj)
}elseif (!$outObj.$XName)
{
Add-Property $outObj $Xname $nullValue
}
}
Write-Output $outObj
}
[11/23 update – Thanks to Richard Siddaway for pointing out that the original version of this script required the script to be in a PATH directory. I modified the script to fix that. If you are a script, this is how you call yourself so you work whether or not your in the same directory or in a PATH directory
&$MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
]
Enjoy!
Jeffrey Snover [MSFT]
Windows Management Partner Architect
Visit the Windows PowerShell Team blog at: http://blogs.msdn.com/PowerShell
Visit the Windows PowerShell ScriptCenter at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/hubs/msh.mspx
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